A very special Paper Bag Album

So I made this very special "Paper Bag Album", Well I would like to think its super special. Why is that? well. Recently I decided to contact a cousin who I have not seen in years. To be specific I have not heard from her seen from her in almost 10 years. Now in the past I have tried contacting her. Maybe I should have tried harder. But I thought to my self here I am going to be 35 soon and we are a month a part, we grew up together, played together. Granted we had our ups and downs. But isn't Blood suppose to be thicker then water right? So I am going to try again. Hey that is all I can do right? So I wrote her a letter. Granted I have not heard back from her yet. I sent it via Email. I am not sure if she will send one back Email or in a letter in snail mail. I would like to hope I do hear from her. In the mean time I do have her mailing address. So I made this Album for her and might send her a few other goodies. So this is my attempt at restarting a relationship. I love this album personally. And I did put a lot of love into it as well.

Here is the youtube video showing the details. I hope you enjoy looking at it. I know I enjoyed making it.

Altered Starbucks Jar into a Vase Tutorial

Altered Starbucks Coffee Jar

So I have seen many tutorials on how to alter these Starbucks jars, into many different things. I took a little bit of each and did what worked best for me.

Here is a list of things you will need
Starbucks Coffee jar, Cutting board,
Acrylic paint (any color you want)
Designer paper to match your paint
Mod Podge, Hot Glue Gun, Paint Brush
Flowers, ribbons, accessories to coordinate with your paper and paint.

Empty Starbucks Coffee Jar

First you want to get your self an empty, of course starbucks coffee Frap jar. Clean it out. Take off the top rapper. You can leave the rest on as it will be covered. Or you can use Goo Gone to clean of the sticky mess after you rip off the label. For me this was a waste of time and just a long extra step to take. So I left them on as you will not see the label what so ever after you are done.

Painting the jar

Next take your acrylic paint and paint the top portion of the jar. be careful let the first coat dry, and then apply the next coat. But don't go over one area to many times as the first coat will start to come up and bubble. I paint more then half way down the jar onto the label just to make sure I have the expiration date covered, also this reassures that there will be no none painted spots showing above  my paper line at the top.





You can leave it without paint, but your expiration date will show, there is product called "Stays on all purpose cleaner" that will take the ink off. But I like how it looks painted, plus I did not have that product on hand.

cutting the paper

Next you want to make your cuts to your designer paper that you have chosen to use for this project. Here are your dimensions for your cuts. Cut your paper 8 3/4 inches long and then by 2 3/4 inches wide. So you will need your cutting board for this part of course.

Mod podge your paper

Now after you make your cuts. As an alterantive You can use double sided tape. I did not like how my ATG Gun worked on the jar. I tried Mod Podge and it was wonderful.

Flip over your paper and take what ever you use to spread your mod podge and give it a good layer on the back of the paper. Don't be afraid give it a good coat. You want it to stick to your jar.

Line up your paper on jar

Next lay your jar down flat. Front of the label if you have left it on, should be facing to the front and then line up your paper to the bottom of the label. Make sure its centered because you want the rest of the paper to wrap nice and neat around to the back of the jar and have a nice even seam.Sometimes it will be a little uneven if you did not make your cuts strait. However, no worries most of the time your embellishments, ribbons, etc will cover your mistakes. You can always cover these little errors up. No one will be the wiser.

Lining up seem

At this point you should be to the back of your jar making sure your seam is nice and even. Make sure to smooth the paper down going around all sides. You want to make sure you have no bubbles from the mod podge. You want to make sure everything is going to stick and not come up. And if you used a good coat of Mod Podge you should not have this issue.

Adding embellishments

Now you can start taking what ever embellishments and accessories you have chosen to adorn your jar with and start using your hot glue gun on them. Placing them on your jar  to your style and taste. 

Adding Mod Podge to paint

This is a very important step, you don't want to forget this step at all. You can do this either before or after your embellishments. I try to do this before. If you miss the step before embellishing like I did in this case, no worries you can work around your embellishments.But you need to coat your paint with mod podge. This seals it and keeps it from scratching and piling off. Just like your paint dont stroke over one area for to long or your paint will get to wet and start bubbling and piling up.

Let it dry

Last but Not least. Let your jar sit and dry. It will not take to long depending how hot or cold your work area is. But if your working under a nice lamp they tend to dry very quickly I have found in my case.

Finished jars

Once they are dry you now have a beautiful altered Starbucks Coffee Jar turned into a Vase. Have fun with them. Try different embellishments and styles of papers. I am doing these for a School fundraiser for my kids private school. And plan on making some for my shop to sale.

Have fun creating, Altering, and Scrapping ladies. Till next time. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Card making for this Planet Scrappy Mom.....

So my friend Terrie Surface from One Crafty Cookie. You can follow her Facebook Page HERE or subscribe to her Youtube videos HERE and her Blog HERE.

So Anyway she is such an inspiration to me. She makes these wonderful beautiful cards and other wonderful crafts. Her Zibbet store front can be found HERE.

She has been inspiring me so much to go outside my comfort zone when creating cards. And on top of that she is so loving and kind and helpful. She has even helped out the school my kids attend with their next Auction fundraiser. These Fundraisers help keep our small private school open. You can learn more about the school HERE.

Here are a couple cards I made the last two days. I have had a few of my clients who purchase my art ask about if I am selling my cards. So that is what I will be doing. I will be selling my cards now. They will rang from $5.00 to $7.00 plus shipping depending on what embellishments I use for each card. You can go to my Facebook page HERE to see what I am up to as well.

I really like this card. This one is $7.00 because of the embellishments I have used. as well as the custom box envelope it will come in. I am finding it hard to give up my creations. I can't help but fall in love with every one of them and think they are all my babies. I know its silly. But when you put time and effort into something it really is hard to let go of. But out of my cards this is my favorite one. It also helps that I do love the Mariposa paper line.

This is the special friendship card I made. This one is only $5.00 as I did not use as many of the embellishments and is a more simple format. Less is sometimes better. And I really love how simple and bright this one is.

This one is called Hearts and Kisses. I got a lot of compliments over this card. This one is for sale as well. Because of the embellishments it is $7.00 plus shipping. And it will come with a box envelope.

Love is in the Air is not for sale. I made this to go along with my Love daybook that will be in my kids school Auction that will be held on Feb 2nd. To participate in the auction and bid on some lovely items you can go to our Facebook group where it will be held at over at this link HERE.






So I just want to thank Terrie for inspiring me. And all the women over at Scrappy Diva's are truly wonderful women.

The Link Fairy......

So I have been following this great blog called The link Fairy. They have product reviews, business advertising and some great giveaways. http://thelinkfairy.com

Right know there current giveaway is a cute supermarket for kids. Click on the link bellow it will take you strait to the giveaway. If I win it, I have am going to give it to a child who otherwise would not be able to receive toys like this.

"Bringing the Supermarket Home With Learning Resources!"

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfP2EUK2MVQ&feature=player_embedded

Love is in the Air.....

Love is in the air

Yes Indeed Love is in the air. I made this card the other night. While most are celebrating Valentines in February. And while I don't recognize that day for personal reasons. Lets face it for February Love is in the air for me. Why yes February 17th happens to be my husband and I's Anniversary. We will be Married for 12 years. No his card is not for our Anniversary. I will have to create something a bit more Manley or superheroish. Is that even a word? Needless to say it has put a little Love bug in me and I decided to make something with LOVE in it. So this is the card I came up with.


Then I got to thinking. Our School Auction is coming up for Rise & Shine. I love to always donate something crafty to the auction. I most likely will still donate a gift certificate for my Art work from Abstract Mind by Wlo. (shameless Plug)... But I wanted to do something more. But here is some valuable information about Rise & Shine and the Auction, or what I posted on my FaceBook Page. Want to donate to the cause after you read about it. Email me at wendylopez@riseandshineservices.org

"Rise & Shine SchoolHouse is holding its next quarterly Auction on Feb 2nd. Rise & Shine Schoolhouse is dedicated to make sure that tuition is never a barrier for our students. We help them by obtaining grants and scholarships. And one way of doing this is through fundraising for our private school. Rise & Shine Exceptional services LLC is the only Private school in Maricopa that services exceptional children. What is an Exceptional child? An Exceptional Child could be Special needs, gifted, Medically Fragile, or a child that just did not thrive within the public school system. Rise & Shine’s mission is to empower these students to rise above significant barriers, discover their talents and gifts & to shine as inspirational leaders within their community. Please go here to participate in the auction https://www.facebook.com/groups/227162414077200/
Or you can go here to see what Rise & Shine is up to and all the great things our kids are doing. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RiseandShineExceptionalServicesLLC/

You can go also take a look at our main website at www.riseandshineservices.org

So that being said here is a picture of the DayBook I am creating for the Auction. 

Love DayBook

Like Always it will be hard for me to give up my work. Because I end up loving everything I create. But I also like giving away my stuff I create as well. And lets face it this is for a great cause. And I love volunteering I always have. Did I mention my position at the school I fully volunteer my time as School Administrator. This is how much I love the school, and how much it means to me. So Love is in the air for me for February. School Auction, Anniversary... The best gift my family and friends can give to me is to donate an item to the Auction. You will not regret it <3 I do have a list of wants too ;oP

Boy look at that DayBook....

Ben's Day Book

So Yes I started another DayBook. I am loving these. And I will be putting them on my items that I will make and sale. So if you want a custom DayBook. Contact me and I will make one for a special day you want to remember.

This one I am making for my Son Benjamin. I made the last one for my daughter Lana. I will be taking there pictures soon. Remember I am a photographer. Shameless Promotion. Go like my page over here at https://www.facebook.com/abstractmindbywendy and remember to go like my Arts and Crafts page over at https://www.facebook.com/AbstractMindByWloArtandmore I promise you will not regret it.

So I always, for me at least, find it harder to create something for a Boy or a Man. Not sure if others have this issue. But its always a challenge for me. And one I am always willing to take on. Lets face it most men dont see the cards and crafts as sentimental as us ladies do. So Its always a awesome challenge to try to wow them. I have yet to WOW my husband with a Manly piece. But he is more into super heroes. I am going to surprise him though with a Super Hero piece. So he better watch out to be wowed soon.

This DayBook is far from being finished. But just wanted to share what I started. Again these are fun and easy to make. But for those who don't craft or don't have time. Contact me... I will create a special one for you. wendylopez2012@gmail.com